Knit-deknit yarns have been used as carpet face yarns to provide body and texture in carpet products produced therefrom.
Conventional methods for making such yarn involve knitting an extruded, fibrillated polyolefin tape yarn into a sock on a circular knitting machine. The sock is then heat treated to heat set kinks in the yarn of the knitted sock. The yarn is then deknit and wound for shipment. In use, the yarn may be formed into carpet, for example, by conventional tufting techniques and heat treated to cure the backing.
Conventionally, knit-deknit carpet yarns are of 5000 Denier ("D") or less. A typical product is 2200 D yarn knitted with 18 needles on a 90 slot, 6.25" diameter knitting machine such as an UNRAV CY-600, or an L-R Machine Model 6-CK circular knitting machine from Larry Rankin Machinery Co. On occasion, heavier product has been known in the prior art, i.e. a 5700 D product knitted with 30 needles, a 5000 D product knitted with 45 needles a 7,600 high density polyethylene yarn knitted with 22 needles and a 10,000 yarn knitted with 15 needles.
While these prior art yarns were acceptable for use in carpets, a need exists for yarns which would provide improved face yarns, particularly in high-end carpet products such as artificial turf sports surfaces.